Nothing is better on a cold day than a warm bowl of rich stew in your hands. The beauty of this Instant Pot Oxtail Stew is that it is a stand alone dish – one pot and you’re good to go.
Have you ever had oxtail? Most people I know haven’t even heard of it and even if they did it probably made them quite nervous, which is so sad. Because this cut of meat is delicious. Think braised beef short ribs or shanks, but with even more flavour. Oxtail, also known as cow tail, is rich in connective tissue and collagen making any kind of stew or soup extremely flavourful and satisfying.
As with most tough cuts, oxtail requires a long cooking time. But here comes our favourite kitchen gadget Instant Pot
In the winter time, I’m a huge fan of cozy stews. Every time I make this pressure cooker oxtail stew it puts me in a good mood straightaway, filling my whole house with delicious smells.
HOW TO MAKE INSTANT POT OXTAIL STEW?
I’ve adapted the recipe from this website and adjusted a few things to my liking along the way. First, I am making this stew in the Instant Pot, allowing it to be ready in less than one hour instead of braising it all day in the pot. I’ve also decided to dress this oxtail stew with a few more aromatics including thyme, rosemary and just a kiss of sage on top to make it even more cozy and warm.
First brown the meat on all sides, sauté the onions and garlic, cover it with some delicious beef stock and spices, set the pressure cooker for 40 minutes and just breathe in the aromatics, feel their warming and therapeutic powers, and transport to a happy place sipping some red wine. Forty minutes later add the potatoes and carrots to make the whole thing sing altogether with both subtlety and richness and set the pressure cooker on for another 10 minutes to cook the vegetables.
This recipe makes for a very brothy stew, so I always eat it with a big piece of crusty bread to dip into to the stew and soak up all the concentrated tomato, herb and oxtail flavours. Alternating between the juicy broth-soaked bread and tender oxtail makes for a delicious dining experience.
Please locate a slice of crusty white bread for yourself right at this very moment. You will need it. Go Go Go.
More Instant Pot Recipes:
Instant Pot Oxtail Stew
Equipment
- pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 3 lb oxtail
- 1 large onion chopped
- 3 medium carrots chopped
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp butter
- 3 cups beef broth
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tsp freshly-ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 2 lb small potatoes halved
- a few sprigs of fresh rosemary and sage
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley + more for garnish chopped
Instructions
- Season oxtail liberally with salt and pepper. Set the pressure cooker on sauté mode and brown oxtail on all sides, about 10 minutes. They are kind of oddly shaped, so move them around so they brown on all sides. Remove oxtail and set aside.
- Add chopped onions and minced garlic to the pressure cooker and sauté for about 3-5 minutes to get a brown color on them and soften them up a little bit. Add 1 tablespoon of butter and 2 tablespoons of flour. Make a quick little roux to thicken this really rich, really delicious stock. Cook the onion mixture for about two minutes. Then add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste. Return the oxtail back into the pressure cooker and pour in the beef broth. Add bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, sage, salt and pepper. Give it a stir and set the pressure cooker for 40 minutes on high.
- Release the steam and skim off any excess fat accumulated at the top. Add the potatoes and carrots to the instant pot. Set the pressure cooker for another 10 minutes to cook the vegetables. When finished, add chopped parsley and serve hot with crusty bread.
I have loved oxtail in restaurants but I’ve never made it at home. Where do you buy your oxtail?
Kari
http://www.sweetteasweetie.com
All the ‘old fashioned’ cuts of meat are becoming popular again, I purchase my oxtail in Coles Supermarket.
Good recipe but I couldn’t imagine cooking this without using red wine
Walmart has them or if you have a butcher shop near by
Walmart has poor quality oxtails. Extremely fatty. Go to your butcher shop.
Made this recipe this morning. I tweeked it by putting taro instead of potato, carrots, and celery. Love it.
This meal looks absolutely delicious! So warm and hearty! 🙂
Yum!
This looks amazing! I’ve always wanted to try cooking with oxtails!
Thank you Colleen! Hope you give it a try!
Wow! Your pictures and descriptions are super scrumptious, and I am not a big fan of oxtail soup. =) I have had it once or twice when I was in Asia, and I loved the flavor but couldn’t get over the texture (to be candid, I was raised vegetarian, and I only recently started eating meat). The meat in your stew looks super moist and delicate. I will have to give it another go. Thanks!
Thanks Aarika! I hope you like it!
Hi guys, thanks for your recipe btw! I shared your recipe in the FB pressure cooker community that I’ve created, hope you don’t mind. It’s nice to see other bloggers treasure pressure cooker, I’ve been raving about this gem to others (but no one seems to believe me how great it is). If you have any more recipes, feel free to share it with us on the FB group and I can post it for others to see.
Have a lovely day!
-Misha
Awesome, thanks Misha!
Gonna try this tonight in my new pressure cooker !!! Love oxtail
Thank you for the recipe.
Thanks Wendy! Hope you loved it!
I have been cooking oxtail stew for years , the old fashioned way. Today I am cooking it in my recently acquired pressure cooker, everything else we have cooked has been beautiful, the meat just falls apart. Hopefully it will with this recipe too.
Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Thank you Kay! I hope so too!
We couldn’t wait for dinner time, so we decided to,have it for lunch. It was beautiful, tasted just as good as the old fashioned way of cooking. Only thing I adjusted was I added a couple of table spoons of cornflour to thicken it up, we like our stews quite thick. I would recommend this recipe to anyone who hasn’t tried oxtail before.
Thank you for a great recipe.
When did you add the cornstalk in the cooking process?
At the very end when it was fully cooked, I put around 3 tablespoons of corn starch in a jug, added a small amount of water to mix it to a runny paste consistency then stirred it into the stew all the while stirring the stew while I drizzled it in. Then cooked for just a couple of minutes until the stew thickened. Can’t wait to cook it again. The other thing I did do, was I removed the oxtail and took the meat off the bone then put it back into the stew, we don’t like fishing out bones while we eat. It was very easy to do because the meat just fell off the bones.
Last night I made your oxtail soup last night after viewing your photos and recipe details, which seemed perfect . I followed the recipe exactly except I cooked the meat for 47 minutes instead of recommended 40 minutes because I didn’t know what pressure your cooker used (if yours was 15# it would have taken longer using mine, which operates at 10#, …and we are located at 5500 ft altitude which usually takes longer).
My wife regards oxtail as one of her favorite dishes of all time. I’ve tried making it for her in the past, but was never happy with the results and the long time required. This time, however, the results were “magic”. Absolutely delicious, I can’t imagine it tasting better!
The photo of you two is beautiful, you look like you belong together. I’m very happy for you.
Thank you,
Richard Schinella
Since I had such great results making oxtail with your recipe I decided to make it again using stewing beef. I’m happy to state that it was also the best beef stew I’ve ever made …and in such a short time.
Thank you.
Love to hear that! Thanks Richard!
Hello! I have never eaten oxtail before, but a couple of days ago, I saw some in the market and decided to buy it, having no clue what I would do with it. I helped that it was at one of my favorite prices… HALF price!
I like Foodgawker because they have a good Search function and, at a glance, I can tell whether or not I’m interested. I searched for “oxtail”, saw your stew and knew I needed to look no further! I even had almost all of the ingredients. Except the pearl onions, so back to the store.
Aren’t pressure cookers wonderful?! I only recently got one (stovetop, not electric) and use it ALL the time. At 15 PSI, I cooked the meat for just 32 minutes before adding the vegetables and that was fine. Browned the meat in the (unpressurized, of course) PC, only one pot to wash.
I made half of your recipe as I had purchased only 1 1/2 pounds of oxtail. Other than that, the only change I made was the addition of about 1/2 cup of frozen peas at the end (after releasing pressure). I HAVE to have peas in my stew! Served mine with a thick piece of crusty homemade bread (which was very handy toward the end of the bowl).
As good as this was, I don’t know if I will use oxtail again. The stew tasted great and was thoroughly cooked, but there’s just not enough meat there! As Richard Schinella mentioned above, I think I will try a small chuck roast next time. Or maybe beef ribs.
A delicious cool weather meal. Thank you!
Awesome! Thanks for the great review, Michael! Cheers!
Hello, I’m a little confused about when to transfer the oxtail to the pressure cooker. But I transferred it when it was time to add the broth. But in your instructions, I went back to check and it said to set pressured cooker to 40 minutes. Am I missing something?
Me too! Never said when to put it in the pressure cooker
Sorry if the instructions were too confusing. I’ve updated the recipe to make it more clear. Let me know if you have any questions.
It taste so good. But next time I won’t put so much salt on them. Taste just like when I was a kid. ❤️❤️❤️
Hi
I’ve never made oxtail in a pressure cooker before, but I have many times made it in a potjie, a South African tradition of slow cooking in a three leg cast iron on the fire. It takes 4 hours. Delicious. Google it.
I’m going to try the pressure cooker next time as a mid week meal, and this recipe sounds great!
Two things I noticed asked here and mentioned in the blog that is very important for some great oxtail:
The cut of the meat. Some butchers don’t know how to cut up an oxtail and will just send it through the band saw. Stay away! Oxtail must be cut on the joints. Mostly it is done the right way (see pictures in recipe), but beware.
Oxtail is very fatty, and produce a lot of cooked off fat. As mentioned in recipe, you must skim it off as lot as possible after cooking (before adding vegs). It will spoil the meal if you don’t.
This stew was very good. Don’t chop the vegetables too small or they will cook to mush. I think subbing a cup of red wine with a cup of the beef broth would boost the flavor. Make sure to have very meaty oxtails. I will definitely make this again, I may even sub a lesser cut of beef for the oxtails. Allot more than 10 minutes for prep time.
I was brought up on Oxtail soup and love it.
The broth is the richest of all beefs and the flavor just topples everything else over.
This recipe is fantastic the only difference I make in it is to debone the Oxtails.
I purchase my Oxtails at BJ’s, they have them on a regular basis and just ask if you don’t seen them At Kroger’s I usually have to ask for them and then sometimes have to have the butcher save/get some for me. I am sure Sam’s Club and Costco have them as well.
I was wondering after the 40 min do you do a quick release of the pressure and then put the potatoes/onions/carrots in for an additional 10 minutes?
Exactly right! Thanks for stopping by Connie!
I must try this recipe , it looks y
I made this over the weekend and it was out of this world delicious!
Thank you so much for the feedback Jennifer!
Yum
Hi, this looks so good, I’m planning on making it on the weekend. What kind of potatoes do you use? Thank you! I can’t wait to have it!
Thanks Andrea! I’ve used yukon gold kind
I use turnips instead of potatoes.
Hi There,
thank you for taking the time to share this recipe. I have done this tonight and this is an amazing dish and will most certainly be doing it again. My one negative comment is the prep time…..I am pretty fats around my kitchen and from the start to end of my prep time including peeling, chopping and seasoning, it took my 45mins. Not to worry because the meal itself made up for it. thank you 🙂 🙂 🙂
Thanks Marc! Glad you enjoyed this stew!
My little kids loved this. And they are in the running for worlds pickiest eaters. Fantastic recipe. Making it again tonight. Back to back weeks.
This is awesome! Thanks so much Steven! Enjoy!
This looks like a yummy recipe. A different variation on how I usually prepare my oxtails. I am from the South and I grew up eating oxtails. They are so expensive, but worth every penny!
You guys nailed it!
Christal W
Hello, I want to try this receipe, but I’m not quite understanding part of the instructions at paragraph 2. Do I add the butter and flour separately in another pot to make the roux? Where you say to “reduce the pot to medium”, are u talking this separate pot, then add all to the instant pot? I’m sorry but I’m confused? Could u please clarify? Thank you.
In the same pot as the onion add the butter and flour, brown it a little and follow the rest of the recipe. I just finished making it and it turned out great.
This looks very good! I will be trying this recipe out today. I’m from Louisiana so we cook it a different way, I like to try different recipes outside of what I’m use to.
Thank you for the detailed recipe! While I was reading it seemed like I could smell the food!!
This is delicious! What I just cooked in an hour usually takes five!! Awesome!
Do you use one of each sprig of rosemary/thyme/sage? Or you just choose one that you like?
Hi Sabrina! Whichever you like
Very delicious definitely reccomend!
Do you do natural release or fast release at the very end after the vegetables are cooked?
Hi Luda! I always recommend natural release if possible. Cheers!
I took this recipe and not only made it with oxtail but the second time I used pork necks. Absolutely delicious!!
This is awesome! I love how you got inspired by this recipe! Thank you!
Hello, would you know if water ratio is same in instant pot? I’m new to the pressure cooking/instant pot world
Hi Nicole! I just updated the recipe, and water ratio in this recipe. Cheers!
Second time making this with great success. I allow 15 minutes of natural release time before opening the valve at both steps. The only change I make is that instead of the tablespoon of salt I sub the equivalent in bouillon. So rich and delicious! These leftovers always get finished up.
I love ox tail and I sauté it with peanut butter (Yes peanut butter) together with vegetables, bak chop, eggplant, beans. Because of oxtail fat contents, I cook (boil) it first till tender, put in fridge the day before and then remove the fat before cooking it
Great recipe. You say parsley in the ingredients, but looks like coriander in the photos. Coriander works much better.
Copied this recipe years ago & finally made tonight. Didn’t use oxtails, as they are running $8.00 per pound in So CA. I used beef neck bones at $2.39 a pound. I did add some red wine and browned my meat in bacon fat. Added a little Tamari Sauce & Anchovy Paste. With respect to vegetables, added potato, carrots, celery, mushrooms, parsnips, onions, garlic, and turnips (whatever you have in the fridge).
Since I use a Presto, cut the meat cooking time down to 32 minutes and the vegetables down to 5 minutes.
Great step by step and thanks for posting.
Sorry, but your cooking time is WAY too short. Try one hour and 40 minutes on high in the instant pot.
I use canned tomatoes with chilies, garlic , and sherry wine, fat carrots, onion, parsnips, and beets. I call the market in advance to see if oxtails are in stock, and request the butcher save large oxtails so I don’t waste time with pre-packaged ones with tiny oxtails.
I don’t use flour for gravy because I make a soup from leftovers the next day — using beets its almost like borsht.
Hello, when you brown the meat do you use oil to brown?
We got a package of ox tail from our local food bank, not really knowing what to do with it, I went online and found your recipe. My husband loved it! He’s usually picky when it comes to different herbs and spices, I didn’t hear a peep out of him other than yum noises lol. Will for sure make again!
I made the sin my Ninja and actually used 50% oxtail and 50% diced beef to bulk it up. Absolutely superb! A teaspoon of dry sherry at the end really takes it to a new level. Brilliant recipe , thanks.
I am looking at the recipe which calls for 2 small potatoes, halved. As a recipe for 6, the amount should be a minim of 3 medium potatoes halved, or one medium potato per person, I would think. Even looking at the pictures, there are definitely more than 2 small potatoes in the pot. Just a small detail. My stew is brewing in the IP right now. I will add 6 medium potatoes. I will come back and rate the recipe after we have given it a taste. Thanks for a good, straightforward recipe. I like the idea of adding the carrots and potatoes at the end . Saves them getting too mushy and “stewy.”
Its actually 2 pounds that the recipe call for